Fernando Alonso will part with Alpine F1 after the end of the season and move to Aston Martin next year, but for now his disagreements with the factory team of the French concern Renault continue. During the Japanese Grand Prix, this was evidenced by some of his remarks on the radio, and comments that he made after the race, talking to the Spanish press.
In particular, he did not like the fact that Esteban Ocon, his partner, switched to intermediate tires a lap earlier, while Alonso was invited to the pits only on the 8th lap, although many teams made double pit stops.
He did not hide his irritation, talking on the radio with Karel Loos, his race engineer: “It was a big mistake! I mean the choice of tactics. What are you doing to me this year?”
The newspaper Marca also cites his words, said after the finish: “I asked the team twice in advance for a pit stop, but perhaps my microphone did not work. As a result, we finished in the same position from which we started.
We always make decisions about pit stops later than others. I was one of the last ones still riding heavy rain tires and we lost a few spots because of that. Then we had to make an additional pit stop, but only six laps before the finish line, when it was too late to recoup.
Alonso’s comments on DAZN were somewhat less angry: “At first we pitted too late to switch to intermediate tires and I lost some ground. And at the end of the race, we didn’t know if it was the last lap or not, and the team warned me only in the last corner. I think everyone was in the same conditions, but when I was driving a car on the track, I felt that there was some chaos in the team.
Alonso did not accidentally mention the last corner of the last lap of the shortened Grand Prix distance: he fought Sebastian Vettel to the end, and the Aston Martin driver ended up crossing the finish line just 0.011 seconds earlier. Unfortunately, this duel of theirs did not get into the broadcast of the race, but the audience in the stands of the autodrome in Suzuka certainly enjoyed it a lot.
The Madrid newspaper also recalled that the disagreements between Alonso and the Alpine F1 strategists were already at the April stage of the season in Melbourne, then in Spa and Monza. Four stages before the end of the championship, Fernando takes the 9th line of the personal standings, behind his partner, Esteban Okon, 13 points.